Taste of Sydney Announces Line-Up

Firedoor, Biota Dining and Kitchen by Mike are on the menu at the four-day food festival.

Thievery

Photography: Nikki To

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Photography: Nikki To

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Porteño

Photography: Kai Leishman

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Published on 16 February 2016

by Jared Richards

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Besides live cooking demonstrations, meet-the-chef sessions and wine masterclasses, Taste of Sydney is your chance to sample dishes from some of Sydney’s top restaurants in one go.

At the event in Centennial Park this year, hosted in partnership with Electrolux, you can try the diverse flavours and styles of a variety of long-established and hatted restaurants.These include Sake Restaurant & Bar, MoVida,
and Otto Ristorante, alongside Sydney newcomers such as the fire-chamber obsessed Firedoor, the contemporary Middle Eastern Thievery and Nelly Robinson’s conceptual degustation restaurant, nel..

Even the departed will make an appearance. Mike McEnearney’s Kitchen By Mike closed its doors last August when McEnearney signed on to be creative director of Carriagework’s Farmers’ Markets, but will return to serve its homey-yet-inventive dishes at Taste Festival.

McEnearney says the event is a taste of things to come, ahead of opening another Kitchen By Mike at Sydney International Airport in the coming months. “You know, I miss Kitchen By Mike, and I’m excited to get back to it. Taste is a great place for a pop-up, something practical to do in between setting up the next installation.”

“Just like in Rosebery, we’ll serve food based on the best produce we source at the markets each day,” McEnearney says of re-creating at Taste the canteen and fresh meals Kitchen By Mike was known for. “It’ll be smaller, of course, but very authentic, with the exact same tastes – I can’t wait to make our cucumber salad, our rice puddings with jam, or our pork belly with apple chutney.”

“It’s cool to be a part of this creative culinary community,” says Julian Cincotta of Thievery, who also hints at some of the things he’ll serve: among them a Middle Eastern spice cocktail called the Wet Rose. The main inspiration for his menu will be the Taste festival atmosphere itself.
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“Thievery is all about sharing plates,” he says. “Splitting meals with friends, conversing over a table filled with lots of flavourful spices and herbs. What better place to do that than at a festival?”

Taste of Sydney Festival runs from March 10–13. For more information and tickets, visit The Taste of Sydney’s website.